Mr. Black Teacher Feature

Our teacher feature this week is Mr. Black. Mr. Black teaches 9th, 10th, and 11th Grade History. His classroom is located in the E 100 flex.

How long have you been teaching history?

I began training as a teacher in 2003 and finished the program in 2005, but I had a couple of years where I wasn’t teaching.

Do you enjoy it?

Yeah, I love teaching!

What is your favorite unit to teach?

That’s a tough one, because every year I’ve taught 10th World History, and each year I do it a little differently, but I really like teaching about the industrial revolution, and the French revolution, and I love talking about political issues. Also, I love to teach about the civil war and the reconstruction period, and again, I love to talk about politics. How history relates to now interests me more than just straight history.

Is politics something you’re active in your personal life?

Not directly, I used to be a reporter so I, of course, covered a lot of political issues, and that partially sparked my interest.

What got you into journalism?

Journalism is something that I wanted to do since high school so I ended up doing it for 25+ years and then I became a teacher. And there are some parallels between journalism and teaching history. A lot of what we talk about in history has modern parallels, so if there is an issue that comes up, we can look at the past and see what’s changed, and see if we’re making the same mistakes.

Do you have any plans for the holidays?

I am going down to California, so my wife and I go down every winter. It’s nice to get away from the cold. We usually go down to Santa Barabara, or anywhere in Southern California for five to ten days.

What is your favorite holiday time food?

My wife is Jewish so I love all the Jewish chocolate treats. There’s a cake called babka which was mentioned in a Jerry Seinfeld episode. I had never heard of it, and then I tasted it and now I love it.